By Sabrina Miller and Abul Taher and Elizabeth Haigh 10:12 p.m. Oct 7, 2023, updated 10:50 p.m. Oct 7, 2023
Student Noa Argamani sits on a terrorist’s motorcycle and points at her helpless friend with her arms outstretched. She begs for her life.
She screams: “Don’t kill me!” “No, no, no” – but the gunman races away. Noa has not been seen since.
Her friend Avi Nathan is left desperate and helpless in the desert. He is also missing.
The footage of Noa’s abduction widely shared on social media is almost too harrowing to bear. “Imagine what it’s like for her family,” said her college roommate, Amir Moadi. It was only when they came across the footage online that they learned she had been kidnapped.
Along with hundreds of other young Israelis, Noa and Avi had been enjoying a peace festival in the desert when they had to flee Hamas terrorists to save their lives.
Revelers had gathered for a nighttime trance rave near Kibbutz Re’im near the Gaza Strip to celebrate the end of the Sukkot holiday.
But yesterday morning the celebrations ended in chaos after Palestinian terrorists began firing rockets and gunfire into the crowd.
A sudden invasion by the Hamas group has already killed at least 450 people and injured another 2,610 – in less than a day. Dozens more are said to have been kidnapped and driven across the border into the Gaza Strip.
Student Noa Argamani sits on a terrorist’s motorcycle and points at her helpless friend with her arms outstretched. She begs for her life. Along with hundreds of other young Israelis, Noa (pictured) and Avi had been enjoying a peace festival in the desert when they had to flee for their lives. Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces attacked a high-rise building in Gaza City on October 7. A woman makes her way through rubble in Tel Aviv late Saturday. Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon
Footage shared on social media showed hundreds of people fleeing the site on foot, screaming and crying, pursued by the sound of gunfire.
“I was supposed to go to the desert party but decided against it at the last minute,” Amir said. “The last time we heard from her was around 10 or 11 this morning when she texted all of us telling us that terrorists had opened fire and were chasing everyone but that they were both safely in hiding.
“We haven’t heard from them since, but then unfortunately we saw the disturbing videos of their abduction online.” One of her on the back of a bike with terrorists.
“The family is okay with us posting this because they want her released and hope someone can help.”
“Her parents are in shock and can’t even speak.” She is an only child.
“She is such a lovely, positive woman, always friendly and loves to travel.” She has just returned from Sri Lanka. “We can’t believe something like this would happen to us.”
Last night Avi’s brother Moshe said: “My brother just wanted to celebrate with his girlfriend and see what happened.”
The shocking story unfolded as families across Israel woke up yesterday expecting to celebrate together one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.
Instead, the Simchat Torah festival became a day of terror and bloodshed for residents near the Gaza Strip.
The peace of the holy Sabbath was shattered early this morning when marauding Hamas militants raided the streets in places like Sderot, a town less than a mile from the border.
Noa’s friend Avi Nathan (left) is left desperate and helpless in the desert. He is also missing. Journalists take cover behind cars as Israeli soldiers take position during clashes with Palestinian fighters near the Gevim kibbutz. Israeli civilians were reportedly taken off the streets and driven back to Gaza. Footage appeared to show hostages being taken into Gaza by Hamas militants today People try to put out fires on cars after a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel. Dozens of rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinians on Saturday evening. Smoke and flames rise after Israeli forces attacked a high-rise building in Gaza City. One was captured A woman was sitting in the front seat of a golf cart with three male Hamas members as they made their way to the Gaza Strip
Brazen Hamas fighters knocked on the doors of residents expecting to find Israeli soldiers trying to reassure them about the air raid sirens.
READ MORE: Shocking moment of rocket attack on Palestinian tower captured in live TV broadcast of conflict with Israel – frantic reporter screams
Instead, innocent mothers with children, settlers and even frail elderly people became the “spoils of war” of the masked terrorists who abducted them at gunpoint.
Their actions – which horrified the international community – brought back grim memories of masked Islamic State terrorists in Syria parading hostages on social media before executing them.
But a Hamas leader hinted to the world that these hostages, who numbered well over 50 last night, would not be killed but would be used as human bargaining chips for the release of their own prisoners in Israeli prisons.
A terrorism expert added that the captured Israelis could even be used as human shields to stop the Israeli Air Force – which began attacking Gaza yesterday – from blowing up certain targets.
Chilling footage on social media showed terrified hostages being taken into Gaza by Hamas militants, chanting “Allahu akbar” (God is great) as they led them away.
In a chilling video, a young Israeli woman, reported on social media as a soldier, was seen lying in the back seat of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored vehicle seized from the terrorists. Then she was dragged out of the boot by her hair. Her clothes were covered in blood.
As she was squeezed into the back seat, terrorists armed with Kalashnikov rifles shouted “Allahu akbar.” The fate of the unknown woman was not known last night.
The picture shows Israeli soldiers after fighting between the IDF and Hamas. Significant damage was noted in areas of Tel Aviv in Israel from the airstrikes, overwhelming Israeli defenses. Shocking footage shared on social media appears to show Palestinian fighters displaying an Israeli woman’s naked body in the back of a pickup truck, firefighters work to extinguish a fire in an open field following a mass infiltration of armed Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip
In another 10-second video posted on Telegram, at least five Israeli women with bloodied faces are seen huddled in the back of a pickup truck being taken away as hostages.
READ MORE: Police will step up patrols in Britain’s Jewish communities amid fears violence in Israel could spark a series of anti-Semitic attacks
Another six-second video showed the capture of an Israeli mother with two young boys. Pro-Hamas Twitter accounts said she had been placed under their protection, but her fate and that of her children were not known.
Sources at the Israeli embassy in London said last night that most of the hostages had been kidnapped from seven areas bordering the Gaza Strip, including the city of Ashkelon. It was also reported that several hostages were kidnapped from a kibbutz in the village of Be’eri, near the Gaza border.
In one case, a video showed an Israeli hostage completely covered with a white sheet being taken away in a golf buggy by a group of terrorists.
Two more videos appeared on X, formerly Twitter, showing elderly women being taken to Gaza. In one case, an Israeli woman wearing a red top was trapped between two Hamas terrorists on a motorcycle.
And grainy cell phone footage shows a pensioner being driven away in a buggy with three armed terrorists on board.
Last night it was also reported that a mother and her two daughters, aged two and four, were among Israeli civilians taken hostage by Hamas gunmen and held in Gaza.
Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian (center) from Kibbutz Kfar Azza to the Gaza Strip on Saturday, October 7, 2023. Palestinians are greeted by crowds after returning from crossing the border into Israel
Sources in the Israeli government acknowledged that some of their soldiers were taken hostage, but said their identities could not be confirmed until their families were informed.
Gruesome videos showed a male Israeli soldier being taken into Gaza and paraded through the streets as passers-by attacked him. There were also reports that a senior IDF commander was taken hostage, but the Israeli government has not confirmed this.
Shoval Kahlon, a resident of Sderot, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan yesterday: “We woke up to alarms at 6:30 a.m..” We thought it was the usual rocket attacks, but we heard gunshots on the street.
“Then we saw Hamas people in vans.” They knocked on the houses of residents who thought they were Israeli soldiers. They took them hostage.’
Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera television that his group was holding “a large number” of Israeli prisoners, including high-ranking officers, adding that they were in favor of negotiating the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons would be used.
An estimated 5,200 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, including 33 women and 170 minors.
In 2011, Israel secured the release of its soldier Gilad Shalit by releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at think tank RUSI, said: “Hamas has used hostages as a bargaining chip before.” It is likely they will do so again and not execute any hostages.
“It is possible that the hostages will be used as human shields in the coming days, but their main task would be to secure the release of Hamas prisoners.”
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said last night: “The news of civilians being taken hostage in their homes or in Gaza is appalling.” This violates international law. “Hostages must be released immediately.”
Attacking by land, sea and air: IAN GALLAGHER reveals how Palestinian terrorists entered Israel and launched a coordinated, multi-pronged attack that left the world reeling in horror
The world recoiled in horror yesterday as Israel suffered its worst attack in 50 years – surprised by unprecedented land, sea and air attacks.
In a coordinated, multi-pronged attack, Palestinian terrorists crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, seized settlements, and captured and murdered civilians celebrating a Jewish holiday.
In a video widely shared on social media, a woman shouting “Don’t kill me!” is seen being driven away by an armed man on a motorcycle.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that it is Noa Argamani, 25, a student who was arrested at an outdoor peace festival near the border which she had attended with her boyfriend.
Other footage showed captured soldiers and civilians – some dead – being paraded through the streets of Gaza.
A young girl looks at the rubble caused by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. Many Palestinians were without power as they dug through the rubble. People flee as clashes break out between Palestinian groups and Israeli forces following earlier airstrikes in Gaza City. A man carries a crying child as they walk past a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City
Announcing the start of what Hamas described as “the largest battle to end the last occupation on earth,” the Gaza ruling group had earlier fired more than 2,500 rockets at Israeli targets, killing more than 200 people and wounding 980 .
Elsewhere, some of the invaders on motorized paragliders attacked enemy bases with machine guns.
Many more armed men poured into Israel in a convoy of trucks, cars and motorcycles after an advance force razed the heavily fortified border, previously considered impregnable. Others came ashore by boat. The attacks immediately plunged the region into full-scale war.
Israel vowed revenge and responded with a devastating rocket attack that left 230 dead and 1,610 injured in Gaza. Hamas has previously been accused of cold-blooded executions, with footage of apparent victims flooding social media.
In other developments on Israel’s darkest day in decades:
Terrorists seized at least 50 Israeli hostages and took them to Gaza, where they are being held in underground tunnels;
- Armed men drove a captive elderly woman to Gaza in a golf cart;
- A video showed the body of a half-naked woman, believed to be an Israeli soldier, being led through the Gaza Strip. Another revealed a dead man in military uniform slumped in the back of a truck. Elsewhere, an army commander was reportedly taken hostage;
- A desert rave in Reim, near the Gaza border, was attacked, with dozens kidnapped and several killed;
- Israel said its forces were involved in shootouts with Hamas terrorists in at least 20 locations;
- Last night there were reports of Hezbollah terrorists gathering on Israel’s border with Lebanon and coming under fire from Israel Defense Forces troops. Intelligence sources said Hezbollah was on full war footing, raising fears the conflict could escalate further;
- Rishi Sunak is expected to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him that Britain stands ready to offer help and assistance at the earliest opportunity;
- Security has been “strengthened” at synagogues across the UK;
- Hamas said hostages were being used to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners.
A ball of fire and smoke rises from an explosion in a Palestinian residential tower following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City
World leaders have called for restraint and US President Joe Biden warned Israel’s enemies not to take advantage of the situation.
Mr Biden described the attacks as “unconscionable” and said last night: “Today the people of Israel were attacked by a terrorist organization, Hamas.”
“In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world and to terrorists everywhere: The United States stands with Israel. “We will never fail to get them back.”
The missile storm began at dawn yesterday and quickly overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas’s military wing, said the attack was a response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids on West Bank cities last year and violence in Al-Aqsa, the disputed holy site for Jerusalem’s Jews as the Temple Mount, increasing settler attacks on Palestinians and the growth of settlements.
“Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message.
He revealed that the attack was just the beginning of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” and called on Palestinians from East Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight.
READ MORE: Who is Hamas? Everything you need to know about the Palestinian terrorist movement that started the war against Israel
In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Swords. The bomb targets included the home of Hamas Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Mr. Netanyahu warned that “the enemy will pay a price he has never known.”
Fighting raged on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War as Israel was also caught sleeping by its neighbors.
Yesterday was the last day of another religious holiday, Sukkot. The invasion left many Israelis with the same question: How could this happen?
Israel has the best-equipped intelligence service in the Middle East with informants and agents within Palestinian terror groups, but it failed to predict the attacks.
A massive fence has also been erected along the Gaza border to prevent intruders.
The fence extends deep underground and is equipped with cameras, sensors and sensitive listening technology. Some experts have even suggested that Hamas and other Palestinian groups could not have acted alone and suggested support from hostile powers.
Yesterday’s dramatic events come against a backdrop of hopeful speculation about the possibility that Saudi Arabia and Israel could reach a historic peace agreement with American mediation.
It was hailed as significant – the end of hostilities between the Arab world and the Jewish state. Then a new conflict came out of nowhere.
Mr. Netanyahu has told Israel that it is “at war” with Hamas and ordered a call-up of reservists.
The Israeli prime minister also ordered the military to clear the infiltrated cities of Hamas terrorists who continued to engage in shootouts with Israeli soldiers.
Palestinians use an excavator to break through the border fence that separates the occupied Gaza Strip from Israel. Ambulances transport people to hospital in Tel Aviv after Saturday’s attack. Palestinian militants brandish weapons as they drive through Israeli territory in trucks. A rescue worker from Magen David Adom Civil Protection watches as cars burn at the site of a rocket attack in Ashkelon, southern Israel. An Israeli missile fired from the Iron Dome missile defense system attempts to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip over the town of Netivot in southern Israel
Comparisons to the Yom Kippur War, one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history, heightened criticism of Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who have pushed for more aggressive action against threats from Gaza.
Political commentators criticized the government for its inability to anticipate a Hamas attack, which was unforeseeable at its level of planning and coordination.
The terror attacks come at a time of historic division within Israel over Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal to reform the judiciary. Mass protests against the plan have sent hundreds of thousands of Israeli demonstrators onto the streets and prompted hundreds of reservists to avoid volunteer service – an uproar that has raised fears about the military’s readiness on the battlefield.
Yesterday evening, millions of Israelis huddled in safe spaces to protect themselves from rocket explosions and ongoing gunfights with Hamas terrorists.
Cities and towns emptied as the military closed roads near Gaza.
In the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, just two miles from the Gaza Strip, frightened residents huddled indoors said they heard constant gunfire echoing from the buildings as gun battles continued hours after the first attack.
Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old mother of three who lives in Nahal Oz, said: “With rockets we somehow feel safer, knowing that we have the Iron Dome and our safe spaces.” But knowing that Terrorists walking around communities is a different kind of fear.”
Israel has blockaded Gaza since the Islamist group Hamas gained control of the area in 2007, and the two have been waging wars ever since.
The roar of rocket fire was heard in Gaza last night and residents reported armed clashes along the separation fence with Israel.
“We are scared,” Amal Abu Daqqa said as she left her home in Khan Younis. Others expressed disbelief at the infiltration into Israel. “It’s like a dream.” “I still can’t believe it,” said a shopkeeper from Gaza.